New home plate collision rule draws mixed reactions from Dodgers

GLENDALE, Ariz. >> Opening Day of the 2013 season was two weeks away, but Dee Gordon had his sights set on home plate.

Gordon was rounding third base in the bottom of the fifth inning of a Cactus League game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. There was only one thing in Gordon’s way: Diamondbacks catcher Miguel Montero — all 5 feet, 11 inches and 210 pounds of him.

“The ball wasn’t even there and he blocked the plate,” said Gordon, who weighed about 160 pounds at the time. “It was kind of dirty, especially for spring training. He blocked it. I slid. We collided, then the ball came past.”

Under an experimental rule approved Monday by Major League Baseball, Gordon wouldn’t have to slide. He could stop running a foot short of Montero, tiptoe around the catcher until he touched the plate, and be called safe without fear of getting tagged out.

After several months of deliberation with input from league officials and the players’ union, the language for the rule was finalized for the 2014 season “on an experimental basis.”

Rule 7.13 comes a year too late for Gordon, who suffered a significant ankle injury in the collision and didn’t feel 100 percent again until midseason.

“I was really messed up. I shouldn’t have played Opening Day in Triple-A,” he said. “Yeah, I like (the rule). It’ll help me.”

The rule states: “Unless the catcher is in possession of the ball, the catcher cannot block the pathway of the runner as he is attempting to score. If, in the judgment of the Umpire, the catcher without possession of the ball blocks the pathway of the runner, the Umpire shall call or signal the runner safe.”

The last piece of language that was approved concerned the rights of the runner in potential home-plate collisions.

“A runner attempting to score may not deviate from his direct pathway to the plate in order to initiate contact with the catcher (or other player covering home plate),” it reads. “If, in the judgment of the Umpire, a runner attempting to score initiates contact with the catcher (or other player covering home plate) in such a manner, the Umpire shall declare the runner out (even if the player covering home plate loses possession of the ball).”

If “unavoidable,” catchers can still legally collide with runners in the act of fielding a throw. The runner isn’t required to avoid the ball as it’s thrown to the catcher.

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The new rule didn’t catch teams by surprise. Many, including the Dodgers and Angels, began instructing their catchers about the new restrictions early in camp.

Gordon and catcher Tim Federowicz have lockers close together in the Dodgers’ clubhouse, but their opinions of the new rule could not be farther apart.

“Not a single catcher probably approved that rule,” Federowicz said. “I don’t agree with it, but I guess we have to live with it now.”

His main concern: The new rule contradicts what he’s been taught since childhood. All catchers, he said, learned how to block the plate expecting that runners had to slide around, or otherwise try to avoid the catcher’s tag — regardless of whether the ball was in his mitt.

Federowicz believes the new rule will ultimately lead to more arguments on the field.

“What happens if it’s a big run in the game, a deciding run in the bottom of the ninth, and (the umpires) end up giving it to (the other team) because we’re an inch in front of the plate?” he asked. “Either way, the manager’s going to be arguing.”

MLBPA executive director Tony Clark said in a statement that “we will monitor the rule closely this season before discussing with the Commissioner’s Office whether the rule should become permanent.”

Federowicz is wrong in one regard. St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny, a former catcher who claims to have suffered concussions as a result of collisions during his career, was among the catalysts for the rule.

Matheny reportedly stated his case to MLB’s Playing Rules Committee at the Winter Meetings in December. The committee then voted to approve a preliminary draft of the rule.

Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis said he was also asked for his input through the players’ union.

“The only thing I hate about the rule personally is that it takes away a game-changing play or a game-saving play,” Ellis said. “It’s something we train for, we prepare for, and it’s something that could be the difference between a win or a loss. It’s similar to robbing a home run or turning a tough double play in the middle. Those are both plays that are at risk for injury, and I don’t see those plays being considered for being taken away.”

One such play occurred during the 2013 National League Championship Series between the Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals. Mark Ellis, then with the Dodgers, barreled arms-first into Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina at home plate in the 10th inning of Game 1.

Since Molina had the ball, Ellis would have been called out regardless of whether Molina tagged him or not. That became a source of controversy when slow-motion replays suggested that Molina might not have tagged Ellis with the ball.

According to the new rule, “the runner’s lowering of the shoulder, or the runner’s pushing through with his hands, elbows or arms, would support a determination that the runner deviated from the pathway in order to initiate contact with the catcher in violation of Rule 7.13.”

“Unfortunately it’s been ingrained in us instinctively to block home plate,” Ellis said. “We’re going to have to work really hard to change our mindset, as to how mechanical you’re going to be for us to apply a tag to the runner at the plate.”

Ellis added that he doesn’t want the league to use the rule “to hide behind concussions.” He believes that many injuries suffered in home-plate collisions have nothing to do with the head, such as when San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey injured his left leg in a May 2011 collision at the plate.

Posey, one of the game’s young stars, missed the rest of the 2011 season. The timing of the new rule might fuel perception that it was passed, in part, because of Posey’s injury.

“If this is the way that the league decided to help protect Buster, and the great player that he is, I understand it,” Ellis said. “But the Giants as an organization had Buster not be involved in plays at the plate. They made an organizational decision that they were going to have Buster apply tags without putting his body in harm’s way.”

Should collision protocol have been determined on a team-by-team basis, not by a league-wide mandate? Ellis wouldn’t say.

“Personally for me, I appreciate the sentiment of wanting to keep us healthy on the field,” he said. “I know what happens when I put the catcher’s gear on, what my job entails, and now I’ll make an adjustment.”